W7 D1

Even though I've completed my official challenge, I'm carrying on with the programme because I still have the Race for Life to complete, and because I still have a way to go to become as fit and healthy (and light) was I would like to be.

So once my thighs had recovered a little, I was back in the gym for W7 D1. This is a repeat of W3 so I am able to compare my previous results and see the improvement.

First, my warm up intensity has improved. I'm still just doing 10 minutes on the recliner bike as standard, but I have increased the resistance. This improved my distance travelled from 3.32km to 3.57km, and calories expended from 40 to 74.

After the mobility drills I did the resistance exercises. I increased the intensity of this by doing 10-1 superset reps (intermediate level), rather than the basic 10-2 reps.

It was on the cardiovascular progression that I saw the most improvement. For this, I did 10 x 30 seconds on the rowing machine (level 5) as before, with approximately a minute's rest in between.  Last time the distance travelled was: 69, 72, 83, 90, 93, 101, 104, 113, 115 & 121m respectively. This time I also progressively improved, but started faster and finished harder: 90. 95, 98, 103, 108, 113, 118, 121, 124, 126.  I did wonder how I could possibly go any faster at the end (I must have thought that last time..?)  Maybe for Week 11, I can improve the resistance and try and match or beat my results.

That was supposed to be the end of the workout but I did some more cardiovascular work to prepare for my race. I completed 20 minutes on the cross trainer at Level 6 (0.90 km and 178 kcal).